Ben’s posthaven

I channelled my earlier frustration about the Blanton Museum into some social activism. Specifically, creating a Facebook group about the whole debacle. The result: "Herzog & de Meuron can make my Blanton any day!".

Spurred on by creating it, I collected a good amount of quotes surrounding the whole issue. I've put up a good deal, just from the print media available on-line, not even including architecture magazines! Anyway, I'll be putting up everything I've found there. For you, I have a collection of quotes:

But for all the time, money, and hotheadedness, the final incarnation of the museum is strikingly unremarkable, [...] The new Blanton is just a building, not a masterpiece. - Texas Monthly, 4/2006

Larry Speck on his Resignation:

The departure of [H & dM] was not a simple matter of personal difference, They were treated badly and were put in positions [...] that no top-flight architect should tolerate. - Larry Speck, Dean of the School of Architecture, in his resignation letter

The Regents:

I have a big problem with flat roofs, I've never seen an undulating roof, I am glad that they have [resigned] so that we can [...] select an American architecture firm that [...] understand[s] the cultural significance of the project. - Regents Rita Clements and Tony Sanchez, on rejecting the first and second H & dM designs, and in response to the firm's resignation

About Herzog & de Mueron:

One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed [...] architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity - On H & dM's recieving the Pritzker Prize, the "Nobel Prize" of architecture (2001) The strength of our buildings is the immediate, visceral impact they have on a visitor. - Jacques Herzog

About the New Blanton:

[The museum] certainly won't go down in the history books. - Kevin Alter, associate dean for graduate programs in the School of Architecture (2001) For a building that's going to house famous artwork and because of its location on campus, I think the museum needed to be more prominent in design. - Tray Toungate, Vice President for the Architecture and Planning Council (2001)

"Herzog & de Meuron is known for creating highly imaginative buildings that stand in harmony with their purpose, materials, and site," remarked President Faulkner. "The new Blanton Museum will be not only an architectural landmark for The University and the city of Austin, but a building that will engage students, faculty, and visitors from all backgrounds with the world's artistic traditions."

"The tortured saga of the Blanton Museum of Art has a new and painful chapter. The latest involves Lawrence Speck, dean of the UT School of Architecture for the past six years, who resigned that position on Monday, November 22, in protest of the departure of prestigious Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron Arkitekten from the Blanton project."

"I didn't ever see any [Herzog] designs that I felt would fit with the architecture of the campus," said Rita Clements, UT System regent and chairwoman of the System's Facilities Planning and Construction Committee. However, neither the campus' most noteworthy buildings nor those buildings surrounding the future museum are built in the campus master plan's style, said Kevin Alter, associate dean for graduate programs in the School of Architecture. The campus plan leaves room for architectural innovation for special buildings, Alter said. Alter expressed disappointment that the regents took a conservative approach to the museum."

"But for all the time, money, and hotheadedness, the final incarnation of the museum is strikingly unremarkable. Yes, its Texas granite base, epe wood overhangs, and sixteen-foot-deep arcades are lovely, but they're, well, decidedly traditional. The new Blanton is just a building, not a masterpiece."